The Small-Town Appeal Of a Southern Island

7/16/2006

Daniel Island, SC. Every morning about 6:30, Arthur Quinby walks his golden retriever from his house in Daniel Island Park to the Moo-na Lisa Gourmet Ice Cream and Coffee shop downtown. There he meets about eight other men who gather most days. "It's like the old cracker barrel or hardware store," said Mr. Quinby, an advertising executive who moved here four years ago from Beverly Hills, Calif. "We get together and fix all the world's problems.” The small-town quality of Daniel Island, a planned community 15 miles from the historic district of Charleston, was an integral part of the development's master plan.

Charleston is an old-fashioned city, not eager to see change take place within its boundaries. Out to its residents, Daniel Island seemed so far away that progress could be seen from a comfortable distance, and developers - sensitive to local attitudes - took a "slow growth" approach. In 10 years, the island has grown into a separate community, though still governed by Charleston, where real estate values have drastically appreciated and commercial revenues have bolstered the city's coffers. The project has worked so well that in February, the Daniel Island Company bought a 2,300-acre tract of land in the neighboring city of Goose Creek. Active development of a similar mixed-use community is scheduled to begin in early 2007.

Overseen by the Daniel Island Company, which describes itself as a "lifestyle community developer," Daniel Island is not just another subdivision. As the marketing slogan goes, it's "a town, an Island, a way of life." And lots of people are buying it. The first house sold in 1996; in those days, the place had the air of a Fisher-Price town, with Main Street seemingly plopped down in the middle of nowhere, an American flag flapping lazily above an empty sidewalk.

A decade later, Daniel Island is home to 5,000 residents (from 45 states), 8 distinct neighborhoods (each with its own park), sophisticated landscaping that has matured into vistas of live oak and pistachio trees, thriving schools and churches, several corporate headquarters, the Charleston Battery soccer team and the Family Circle Cup, a major stop on the women's professional tennis tour.

Daniel Island has become an authentic town, where the monthly newsletter contains everything from a list of baby sitters and hurricane tips to a calendar of activities like Outdoor Fat-Loss Boot Camp for Busy Women and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

"The word 'town' means a lot of different things," said Matthew R. Sloan, Island Company. "But it harks back to a simpler era and the feel-good things that people remember from small-town America, like the Friday-night football game."

Until 1992, Daniel Island was a rural 4,000 acre parcel used mostly for farming and hunting. Originally inhabited by an Indian tribe known as the Etiwan, the island was bought by Harry Frank Guggenheim in 1947 for $70,000; when he died in1971, it passed to the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. In 1991, it was annexed by the City of Charleston, but it was largely inaccessible until the Mark Clark Expressway was completed in1992, linking the Island to downtown Charleston. The foundation sponsored a master plan, which was approved by the city in 1993. Development began in 1995, and the island was sold to the Daniel Island Company in 1997.

In the age of "intentional communities"(for example, country-club, private-gated, resort, etc.), the master plan for Daniel Island aimed to mix residential, commercial, retail, civic and recreational components, taking into account low-country traditions and regional architecture.

When Mr. Quinby, 63, and his wife were looking for a place to retire, they flatly refused to consider a retirement community. They bought on Daniel Island the day of their initial visit. "It was new and exciting," he said. "You've got little toddlers all the way to people like us."

In 2005, 53 percent of property sales were to current property owners and their referrals. Most are buying primary homes, from brick town houses to 6,000 square-fool mansions, and the supply of condominiums can barely keep up with demand. Sales have boomed, and property values have soared. When 36 home sites were offered for sale earlier this year, all but four sold on the morning of their release (totaling over $25 million in gross sales).

In 2002, a single-story three-bedroom house with plantation shutters and a front porch close to the sidewalk in the Center Park neighborhood sold for $218,803; it's now on the market for $459,000. In June 2004, a six-bedroom, six-bathroom house with upper and lower porches (or piazzas, as they're called in Charleston) in the Daniel Island Park neighborhood sold for $1.85 million; today, it's listed at $2.99 million (which includes a social membership in the country club).

"It's one of those oddities in urban development that you had an undeveloped interior at the center of a metropolitan area," said Joseph P. Riley Jr., the mayor of Charleston. "We're very concerned about sprawl, but it was a perfect place for some of the region's growth to occur."

Native Charlestonians, many of whom can trace their ancestry to the earliest days of American history, are notoriously anti-change. But while they bemoan the traffic and chain stores that the tourist boom has brought to historic Charleston, many of the old families don't seem to mind the progress on Daniel Island.

"Not a lot changes here," said Marianna Hay, 46, the third-generation owner of Croghan's Jewel Box, a jewelry shop, who lives in the same house her grandparents had in downtown Charleston. "A lot of the old people don't leave Charleston. Going over the bridge is a whole other world but Daniel Island has been well received. It's not like a sprawling suburb. It's tasteful and nice. It mimics Charleston."

It also provides a more affordable option for younger generations who have been priced out of the downtown area, where people "'from away" have bought up many of the old houses, gutted them and then resold them for millions of dollars.

As its residential base grows, Daniel Island has also caught the interest or retailers and entrepreneurs. The sole supermarket, Publix, was an early pioneer, and plenty of local businesses have followed.

Ken Vedrinski, the former chef at the five-star Woodlands Resort and Inn in Summerville, S.C., bought a town house in the Barfield Park neighborhood on the Wando River in 2003. A year later, he opened his own restaurant, Sienna, in the business district. "Everyone told me that I was crazy to open here," said Mr. Vedrinski, 40. "But I've got a huge garden in back of my restaurant, and I can walk to work."

"Some people call it Pleasantville, but I like it," Mr. Vedrinski said. "There's a great sense of community, there are younger families, and it's accessible without the traffic. Everyone knows everybody. It's so cool. Like tonight, it's like cooking for 50 friends."

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